Part 3: Your 3- Your 3 Week Survival Plan

Photo purchased from splitshire.com
Hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday! I am so glad to share with you part 3 of his series The Layered Approach to Prepping from my blogging friend Dan at Survival Sullivan.com.

In parts one and two of this series we discussed the basics of my layered approach to preparedness, namely prepping for personal emergencies and making a small 3-day plan to deal with short-term disasters.
Now it’s time to take another step forward and prepare for a 3-week SHTF event but only if you actually went through the previous articles and implemented some of the things we discussed. This 3-week plan is built on top of your 3-day plan, meaning some of the things I advise you to do below have already been tackled to some degree. All you need to do know is to scale them up a little by doing more of the same.
Your 3-Week Water Supply
This is easy. Keeping in mind the “1 gallon / person / day rule”, that’s 63 gallons per person for the 21 days frame. To make it easier, all you need is one or two 55-gallon BPA-free water barrels, depending of the size of your household. If you have pets or backyard animals, you’re going to need more.
Every container of water (from barrels to store-bought plastic water bottles) needs to go into a cool, dark place. Some people suggest keeping barrels away from ground by placing them on wood pallets but others suggest this isn’t necessary unless the concrete in your basement gets hot. You can do it just to make sure but don’t worry about it for your 3-week plan.
Now that you’ve taken care of the bug-in scenario (which is most likely to happen), let’s focus on storing water in other places you might need it, places such as:
inside your car (the bigger the trunk, the better)
at your bug out location (if you have more such locations, you’ll want to have water on all of them stashed away somewhere even if you don’t have a house or a cabin there)
inside your get home bag (a small bottle of water will do)
inside your bug out bag (around ½ gallon but no more than one because you need to watch the bag’s weight… unless you live in a desert area, in which case the more the better)
In addition, having a personal water filter is great for when you run out of water or if your stockpile grows algae and bacteria. You’ll also want to stock up on some water purifying tablets as well as the gear to boil it if need be.
Which water to get? Tap water is fine as it’s also cheaper and already chlorinated. On the other hand, if you’re going for those 5-gallon water bottles that people normally use in offices (that are already filled with water), that’s fine too. You’ll also want to have a few smaller water bottles on hand, particularly since they’re easier to throw inside the trunk if you’re in a hurry.
Now, if you end up storing more water than usual, that’s great. One gallon won’t be enough if you get injured, for instance so the more the better.
Your 3-Week Food Supply
Your 3-week food supply? Again, not that hard. Start with the staples and add some variety:
dried beans
white rice
pasta
grains
…and canned food.
Most of these dried-foods are easy to store in Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. Put these bags into 5-gallon airtight containers and, if you think you’ll have problems with rodents, put these into bigger, metal buckets or containers.
To these you can add some variety depending on what your family likes to eat, such as:
peanut butter
jam
jelly
…and honey.
There are tools out there to help you calculate your caloric needs but, to me, they’re optional. As long as you buy more and more food, you should be fine because a 3-week supply should not be an upper limit by any means. Once you reach it, you just keep going.
This takes care of your stockpile but what about the food in your survival bags? If you followed the advice I gave you in previous articles, there’s little to add to your bug out bag except for fishing and hunting gear.
Normally you won’t have to spend more than a couple of days out in the wild but things can always go wrong, so your ability to hunt, trap, fish and forage will get you fresh food. Consider adding the following to your bag it you haven’t already:
fishing hooks and fishing line
a booklet or printed sheets with all the wild edibles in your area
snare wire
a rifle, a bow and arrow or even a boomerang for hunting purposes
Once you’ve taken care of what you’ll eat while out in the wild, you should definitely consider storing something at your bug out retreat, provided you have one. All you have to do is more of the same, really and, if you want, you can just split your home stockpile in two, which is another way of saying you should stockpile for 6 weeks instead of 3.
Medicine
Following the pattern for expanding your food stockpile, you can add more medicine and, if possible, talk to your physician about getting some antibiotics. Just tell them the real reason you need them and, hopefully, they’ll help you out. Just keep in mind that I’m a prepper, not a doctor, so please use my advice for information purposes only. Consider adding:
antihistamines (for allergies)
a multi-vitamin and multi-mineral complex
eye-drops
one or two extra pairs of reading glasses
cortisone
anti-fungal cream
yeast infection medicine
bladder infection medicine
liquid bandage
potassium iodine tablets (if you’re worried about radiation exposure)
Next, think about consolidating your other first aid kits: the ones inside your survival bags, your car and, of course, don’t forget the one at your bug out location.
Home and Personal Defense
Three weeks is a long time and a lot of people are going to be hungry enough to ask for food and even take it when you say “no” to them. This is why you should take action against burglaries and home invasions. In addition to having more guns and ammo, you’ll also need to do the following:
replace all your regular windows with Plexiglas
install motion sensors
get a dog
get pepper or wasp spray and keep it handy near the front door
install deadlocks on all external doors as well as window locks
install window breaking alarms
secure your attic access door
make sure you have black curtains for all your windows so nobody from the outside knows you’re home (or that you have electricity when everyone else is in the dark)
These are just the basics. Lots has been written on the topic but these are the main takeaways for your 3-week plan.
Tools and Gear
Spending up to 3-weeks hunkered down either inside your home or bug out location is not going to be easy. You’ll need a few more survival essentials to help:
cooking and eating utensils (It’s good to have both normal and plastic spoons, forks, knives and plates. If water is an issue, plastic utensils are better because you don’t have to wash them. If Garbage disposal is an issue, metal utensils are better because you don’t have to worry about throwing them away. Best to prepare for both.)
consider installing carbon monoxide sensors, particularly if you’re thinking of using your propane or butane stove indoors; not recommended but you might not have a choice)
a propane stove so you can cook when there’s no gas or electricity
a manual grain grinder to make flour from your grains
a hiking solar shower (you can use it both in bug out and bug in scenarios to stay clean with minimum amounts of water)
blankets (to keep you warm without having to consume fuel)
binoculars or a monocular
candles
matches
toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss
Paracord
more duct tape
coffee filters
…and more. This isn’t an exhaustive list but we’ll add to it next time, when we’re going to talk about your 3-month survival plan.
Final Word
Well, that’s it for now. You don’t have to get everything from the above list today but you should consider doing it in the near future. Do thorough research before buying anything and be on the lookout for sales and coupons.
Stay safe!

I hope you all enjoyed Dan’s post I love bringing you all the greatest and latest information from different perspectives.

I wish you all a beautiful week…until next time!

Fondly,

*As with any post at Lil’ Suburban Homestead – our disclaimer is always seek any medical or health advice from your medical professional. Any information shared here is never meant to replace what your medical professional shares with you.

Indeed there is more to prepping than stockpiling … it is a responsibility … a responsibility that never ends because we will never know when mishaps and disasters will hit us. Be prepared when SHTF and even prior to SHTF is every one’s responsibility.
This has been a great read. Thanks for the post. Keep it coming guys!
Cheers!